Tuesday Poll: What is Your Typical Screen on Time in a Day?

In October of 2014, we asked our community what their typical Screen on Time (SoT) was in a day. Most folks had anywhere between 2-4 hours in a day, with the majority of those people seeing 2-3 hours. That’s about what we at DL see on an average day, but your times will vary greatly depending on how often you use your device. Given we are on our phones all day long playing with apps and shooting pictures, we never expect to see crazy-good battery life. However, there’s always someone out there who seems to get 7 hours of SoT with two days usage, and to you, fine sir, we say, “Liar, liar, pants on fire.”

To check this stat, head into the Settings menu on your device. Find the Battery option, click it, then proceed to click on Screen. Underneath the graph which shows your battery drainage over the course of the day, you will see that option. For those running Marshmallow, you will not only see a metric for Time On, but also one for Computed Power Use. This details how much of your phone’s battery the display has consumed in a period of time. For those on earlier versions of Android, you will only see Time On.

So, check that, then shoot your numbers down below. We are very curious to see if a year and a half, on top of new versions of Android, has made any difference when it comes to daily battery life.

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Domagoj

I have 6 hours of SOT and 1 day and 17 hours of usage and still have 35% of battery juice ! Wifi constantly on with 4G mobile signal on, screen is bright (i use it on 35% brightness or about 50% auto brightness, it’s same amount of lux). Smartphone tested is Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro Snapdragon version (5.5.”, full HD, SD 650).

C Shwizzel

So my main question for all of you with 3-4-5+ hours of SoT is how much time is that spanned over? I can’t imagine getting SoT like that and not have to charge between 6am and 10pm. My opinion is I could care less how much SoT I get as long as I can get from 6am, through my work day and evening at home or wherever I am without having to charge again. I’m a moderate user…some days heavy usage, other days not as heavy. Haven’t had that with my S6…it’s terrible. I charge it to full sometime 3 times in a day.

Michael McHale

N5X – I’m lucky to get 2 hours SOT, and I’m on WIFI all day at work. Phone has about 30% battery after my 8 hour day. 5X is awful, not much better than the N5 I replaced.

cknight91

Nexus 6P: 4-5 hours depending on usage.

FD

Moto X Play – variable, but over 5h isn’t uncommon

enaybee

Even though I voted but I don’t think it amounts to anything. I can turn the screen ON and let the battery run down to 0% and then show SOT of 6-7 hours. I get 2-3 hours of SOT but my N6P lasts well over a day. For me battery longevity is more important than SOT since I don’t use my phone much like teeners who are constantly whatsapp-ing all day long.

Bootleg Zani

On my Nexus 6P with heavy use for work all day I regularly get between 4-5 hours of SOT. My phone on average runs from around 8 am to around 10 pm at night. If I enable Battery Saver on my phone in the last 15% it can go all the way until somewhere between 1-3 am depending on use.

emoney

HTC One M8 GPE gets around 5-6 with good signal coverage, 3.5-4 when coverage is shotty.

Astromek21

Droid Turbo 1 with 2 hour 6 minute average screen on and dead battery average in 15 hour 18 m…. I don’t know what’s wrong with it -.-

sinfoman

Tryu a good, old-fashioned factory reset/cache clearing. Like a colon cleansing for your phone, but without the doctor’s orders and embarrassment.

MichaelFranz

this all depends on use. If i watch movies or videos i can get 6+ hours. if its normal use i get 3-4 depending. if im playing candy crush (aka BATTERY CRUSH) then it’ll vary

dcdttu

You people are on your phones a LOT! 🙂

steve0617

N6. March 2016 build. Always 4 1/4hrs with about 15% left. If I push it, I can get 5 but it’s getting into the low single digits of battery. Stock with unlocked bootloader. Brightness never higher than 50%.

shelooga

I knew this would bring out the rooster measurers… well, might as well whip out my ruler too:
5-6 typically. 7 on a good day, 8 if she’s real hot that day. wait

Tony Kuligowski

Seems like the most common theme I’ve noticed with people getting 5+ hours is screen brightness. I leave mine at the stock setting, but if people are turning it down to 30 percent no wonder their SOT is so high. I have noticed the Google Now launcher destroys my battery compared to Nova.

Vlado

Xperia Z3C – 6h screen on time.

sc0rch3d

oh wow…how are you pulling that off? wifi most of the time? mine does around 3.5-4 on lte all day from 6am to 10pm. above average user but not heavy.

Vlado

It is XPERIA 😀
(LTE turned off to 2G mostly)

MJ

This was a just a test right? You don’t sit on your phone for 6 hours with 2G?

Vlado

No a test.Normally it’s endurance more than 5 hours screen on time. I use 4G too, but if WiFi network is available turn of 4G to 2G.

Fiorta

I typically get 3-4 on my Nexus 6 when I don’t use Wi-Fi. Of I only use Wi-Fi, maybe 4.5 on a good day.

David Horvath

Xperia z3 purple on all day, switch sim into z5 at night. Softbank Japan on unlocked Japan models. When in Korea, only have 3G so one Xperia per day will do.

Xious

My question is what the hell are you people doing staring at your phone for 5+ hours? Do you actually talk to people face to face? Do you walk around with your phone in your hand pretty much all day? I feel like I use my phone quite a bit and I rarely get above three hours.

steve0617

I work at home, No kids or dog. Wife is a pilot and gone a lot.

IgotGAME

I received my S7 Edge today and have obviously been working it like crazy getting everything setup like i want it. From what I’ve seen so far, I think battery life will be great!

MechaStark

SoT: 6:08
Nexus 6, CM13, Dark Material theme.

Tuan Dang

about 3-3.5 all lte.

JSo

This is one thing I literally never pay attention to on my phone

rodney11ride

Also agree I’m heavy use for work. So as long as it goes 6 am to 8pm ID say that’s what I need. So far my n6 does that

Agree. I have a charger in my car, more chargers than I can count at home, and would have one at my desk at work if I was allowed to have my phone in there. I never run out of battery and have no clue what my “screen on time” would be for a whole day of using just the battery.

seattle tech

Note 5 sot 5 1/2 – 6 1/2 hours. Rooted debloated ad/tracker blocked

rodney11ride

Shamu

Pretty standard. 3-4

Alex Sweeta

nexus 6p..usually around 3.5…still for me king of battery will be oneplus one — that was average 7 hours. think kellen had the same experience. on a bad day it had 6 hours and was untouchable for so long in the battery dept!

Armorthane

I’ve never seen close to 5 hours of SoT on any of my Android Phones. I’ve seen 3 a couple of times but only when new. I probably differ from a lot of users here in that I actually use my phone as a phone and not just a texting, emailing, surfing the net device. I have Bluetooth on all day for my headset ( I work outside and can’t hold the phone and work at the same time), I talk on the phone anywhere from 1-3 hours a day on my phone. And even with the last Android phone I had, an LG G4, I couldn’t dream of anything close to 5 hours of SoT. Really this pole doesn’t prove much. It doesn’t show if you are running battery hog apps like Facebook. Doesn’t ask if you are using Bluetooth, or making calls. Doesn’t ask what your screen brightness is.

jagema

Nexus 5 here. About 2 hours on average. Not really a heavy user, and it’s not like I could be with this battery life. Either way, it’s somewhat alright for me and I can’t for the life of me see how people would spend 6 hours a day staring at their phone screens.

Mallahet

My N5 is running about the same now, too. While I wouldn’t mind having a bit more (for mostly comfort knowing that if I NEED to use my phone longer, I could), I usually don’t run through it all in one day. If I game or browse the web too much I know I may need to charge it before end of day, though.

Bobb

for my MXPE….avg SOT – 2 hr 5 5min. Battery Life – 1 day 1.6 hrs

Collin_F07

My battery life on Nexus 6p used to be fantastic, 3-4hr SOT from about 8am to 10pm, no biggie. Recently (month or 2) its really taken a dive, 2-2.5 SOT from 8am-10pm. Cant find the culprit. Really annoying though. Ideas?

I heard clearing cache under storage does the trick. Still looking into that as I did this yesterday

sinfoman

AGREE. And if you’ve done an update recently, I also recommend a factory reset/reload of current apps. ESPECIALLY if you have facebook. It NEVER plays well with new updates. Stupid app.

Chris Hannan

I would love to get just 5 hours SOT on any of my phones. :/

ki11ak3nn

What phones do you have? And do you have the Facebook app installed on them?

Chris Hannan

Well, my current phone is a Moto X Pure Edition, but before that I had an iPhone 5s, Moto X 2013, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, ThunderBolt, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, Nexus One, and iPhone 3G. My iPhones have always had the best battery life, but I’ve never gotten 5 hours off of Wi-Fi.

And no, I don’t have Facebook installed on my Moto X. I just use Chrome’s notifications for Facebook.

Person Dude

Well, none of the phones you listed have ever been known for their battery life. If that’s a priority for you make sure your next phone has a larger than 3000mAh battery.

Chris Hannan

My priority is stock Android with decent battery life.

Person Dude

Nexus 6P dude. Best phone I’ve ever used. I get 4-5 hours SOT with mine with the screen at 40% auto brightness, mix of WiFi and LTE (mostly LTE), high accuracy location services, and everything on. If you look past its size and the lack of expandable storage, it’s literally perfect.

If you want to extend battery life even further there’s the option to unlock the bootloader as well. I did and flashed another kernel today, and I can already tell battery life is even better. I anticipate an easy 5 hours on this charge.

ki11ak3nn

With my T-Mobile LG G4 I get between 3.5-4.5 hrs SoT. With my Sony Xperia Z3 I get about 5-6 hrs. #STAMINAMODEFTW

BoFiS

Of course, “typical” is hard when days vary GREATLY…especially weekends. But overall, on a work day, I sit in front of a computer, chatting on Hangouts (in Pidgin), with gmail open, and reading Feedly in my browser, and any notifications I’ll see, and maybe deal with on my watch without having to touch my phone until I’m away from my desk, at lunch, etc. Though, this does mean, that when it’s time to leave work, I’m usually at 70% because yay Z3 Compact

Patrick Smithopolis

I’ve gotten over 7 hours a few times with my Nexus 6P but typically I don’t use my phone that way. I average around 3 to 4 hours and I put my phone on the charger with about 30 to 35 percent left when I go to bed.

Rather than SOT in a day, It should have been in a charge cycle, I get more than 5 hours easy peasy with Moto X Play or Droid Maxx2 as its known in states, that too in a 2 day (single charge) cycle, That is the true test of battery, If I was to use it up in a day, I am sure I can get 6-7 Hours easily, Also I didn’t only used it for browsing but for gps, maps, casual gaming too like Color Twist, mini militia etc

Rod

He didn’t intend to check for battery runtime. He wants to know how long people stare at their phones daily for.

Usually end the day with 4-5 hours with 6P, but I rarely ever go below 15% battery by the time I plug it in for the night.

krubby

Normal average day for me device off charger about 6:00am, 3-4 hours of screen time during the day, battery usually at about 30-40% by 11:00pm. I think I could hit 5-6 hours it screen brightness was down etc. but not sure I have pushed it that far

My brightness is at 50%, GPS off, unless needed. Bluetooth on, WiFi on at home. I was on a road trip and needed GPS on all day for maps and locations and still got to 4 hrs screen on time with Maps on for 2 hours.

alberteezy

Very nice! 😀 I will have to check this phone even though its not stock android but hey great battery life!

John

Thank you for providing proper screens with your claim. Most only show the 2nd pic

gonk24

2+ year old LG G2 with stock Lollipop software gets 4-5 hours. 70% brightness, GPS at high accuracy, account syncs on, no Facebook garbage. 6hr 6min is the best I’ve had it do with 5% battery remaining.

Tony Kuligowski

I miss my G2 now. That phone was a beast in the battery life Dept. Still one of the best designed phones ever other than being a fingerprint magnet.

Brent Cooper

About 4-8 hours typically. Usually 6.5 hours if I had to guess the average. But that’s on multiple battery swaps or frequent fast charging. I have never had a day where my battery lasted from when I wake up to when I go to bed. I’m usually down to 90-85% by the time I leave my dorm room to go to my classes in the morning. Thank God for quick charge 2.0! Best smartphone innovation in a long time. I’m on the note 4 btw

The Doctor

My iPhone 6s Plus gets amazing SoT. I can’t even get the battery down to 60% by the end of the day. I only charge the phone up every two days. But that’s the only redeeming quality about this phone. I can’t wait to ditch it tomorrow when my S7 edge comes in.

gabe1989

screen brightness and the use of ambient display or adaptive brightness must have a huge impact on this stat. is there a multi-step poll where you can ask consecutive questions like this?

Person Dude

Is the poll for the amount of screen on time you can get maximum, or how much time you spend on your phone daily? For the former, I’m getting 4.5-6 running my battery to zero on either my Nexus 6p or Droid turbo 2. For the latter, I use around 3-4 hours of screen on time in a day, sometimes more, sometimes less.

Brent Cooper

Yes the wording is confusing. Please clarify DL

tu3218

Daily usage makes the most sense as that’s what happens daily. How long you can sit there on your phone doesn’t represent regular usage.

Matthew Gomes

Currently using a Nexus 6P, but I have always gone after a “30 minutes of SOT per 10% battery drain” guide and I can hit this successfully. In other words, when I hit 50% battery life I am generally at 2.5 hours of SOT. I tend to keep my brightness level at around 30% most of the time, with very few notifications or background-running apps.

worldclassflame

4 to 5 on my 6P.

gabe1989

typically 2-3 hrs SOT but my battery life is skewed because as soon as i get home at 530 I turn on the mobile hotspot. I run my laptop and chromecast off of my og turbo and most evenings i can get to 9pm before having to plug in. thats with a 7am wake time. cancelling the hotspot next week so I’m expecting to get 24 hrs of usage again. have had the hotspot for the last 5 months so I can’t remember what i use to average prior.

Eric

A mix of wifi and LTE will get me about 4-4.5 hrs on the 6P. Verizon user btw

michael arazan

Exactly the same with a Moto N6 on one charge. Unless I use Bluetooth, 2 hrs Bluetooth eats 20%

Sony Xperia (T2Ultra) user here. Right now just over 2hrs, but %!#^ was that buried in the settings. More precisely more scrolling than I expected.

Tyler Durden

More than 5 hours. S7 Edge for the win.

morteum

Are you on Verizon?

rodney11ride

No he is not. T-Mobile and wifi

Mark2134

Me too. Easily averaging over 5.5 and still in the “excited, trying everything 5 times heavy use” mode

Ismail Akram

Well I expect 6hours of SOT on s7edge but I guess we just get excited about bigger batteries but they don’t always give huge endurance as expected

Fiorta

On WiFi I assume? Wife barely gets 4, but she’s on LTE the entire time

Jason

does she use heavy apps? i got 6.5 hrs on LTE without breaking a sweat.

Greg Morgan

Nexus 5x, typically get 3+ hours SOT. I started getting that after i uninstalled the Facebook app and started using their web version. I found that performance got better too.

mike shinneman

That’s weird I get 4-5 on verizon.

TriguyRN

Mostly is dependent on cell signal strength 🙂

Good_Ole_Pinocchio

Nexus 6p gasps to the finish line in 4 hours. My OnePlus One did almost 6.

moew

Weird, I could get 5+ on my 6P; my OPO was about an hour less than the 6P with normal moew usage in a business day.

I really did like the OPO, but the next gen ones forced me to go elsewhere.

Adam

Yeah I easily get 4 hours of screen time with plenty battery to spare on my 6P. Do you often lose cellular signal when you’re working?

Masri87

Note 4 here. I get an average of 5-6 hrs of SOT , 100% to 2% , i’m a pretty heavy user as well.

ki11ak3nn

I had a Note 3 back in the day. That phone was a beast. I love the Note series. I’m trying to decide if I should upgrade to the Note 5 or get the S7 Edge.

sinfoman

Note 4- confirmed AWESOMENESS. I say wait for the Note 6. My suspicion is it will be out by mid-year or Q3 (for the holidays).

sinfoman

You know, I had this discussion on a different thread a few months back, and the guy argued with me that I couldn’t possibly be a moderate user and get 2 days battery life. He was wrong. I do. To be fair, I OBSESS over the battery life of my phone, thus I obsess over the running applications. So when the latest update came through (N910PVPs4cok1) along with a security update in November and it showed a bump in average RAM usage from 1.5 to 1.8, I thought, OH CRAP, there goes my battery life. But instead quite the opposite is true. I am now running my wi-fi and GPS full time and still get 2 days. I think (can’t confirm) that this update allowed those two items to go into a “hibernative” state while the screen is off (A la DOZE). Anyone else see this change?